Norquist group faces challenge for Abramoff ties

[Eugene]

Norquist group faces challenge for Abramoff ties

By Andy Sullivan
Reuters
Tuesday, March 14, 2006; 4:59 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ethics watchdog asked the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday
to revoke the tax-exempt status of a conservative group for helping disgraced lobbyist
Jack Abramoff secretly fund an anti-casino campaign that benefited his clients.

Americans for Tax Reform also violated its nonprofit status by taking a cut of the money
it handled, said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.

"This thing that they did where they basically took in money from tribes, laundered it and
skimmed some off the top had nothing to do with their purpose" as an anti-tax organization,
CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said.

A spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform declined to comment but said he would have an official
reaction later.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401143.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. About time someone got after these people!

From the article:

E-mail messages released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee last year show that Abramoff and anti-gambling activist Ralph Reed discussed passing checks through Americans for Tax Reform. Those documents indicate that Norquist's group kept some of the money it handled.

Norquist told the Boston Globe last year that he passed along $1.15 million from an Indian tribe that runs a casino in Mississippi to anti-gambling groups trying to block a casino in Alabama.

Because the contributions were routed through Norquist's group, the anti-gambling activists would not know that they were bankrolled by gambling money.
(snip/...)

Grover, resting peacefully in his bathtub.

[calimary]

2. Like that bathtub photo.

There are few people I would MORE delight in seeing get their just desserts. This schmuck just about tops the list (well, after bush, cheney, newt gingivitis, limbaugh and the like). Few are more deserving than grover-baby.

[Liberty Belle]

3. How sweet it is!

Maybe the IRS will hold an auction of Norquist's stuff, like it's doing with the Cunningham estate.

[Demeter]

4. Yes!! Spill the Dirt, Jail the Miscreants!! Share the Plunder!!

It's going to be a GOOD year, folks! For once, our ships come in.

[Hotler]

5. I would to see grover go down in flames. eom.